Configuring workflows during implementation

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

 Configure workflows

 Configure optional workflow settings

Workflow administration

Workflows are typically configured as part of the self-service process. When an employee or
manager submits a change, a workflow is activated. Workflows are built in the implementation
process. The role of the administrator is to ensure the completion of workflows and to manage the
workflow participants.

In the figure, Example: Workflow Approval Steps, you can see a sample workflow with two approvers
after the manager initiates the change, the second-level manager and an HR Dynamic Group. The HR
Dynamic Group is a pool of people where only one person needs to approve the workflow.

Workflow Configuration

Workflow is an XML-based Foundation Object. It is a Foundation Object generally categorized as

Others, and just like any other XML-based Foundation Object, workflow records are managed
in Manage Organization, Pay and Job Structures tool.

In the figure, Workflow Configuration, you can see the workflow record for an Address Change.
There is one approver, the Dynamic Group Talent Approval, and two external e-mail addresses that
will be cc’d when the process is finalized.

Types of Workflow Participants

By default, there are three types of workflow participants:

 Approvers: An approver actively participates in the workflow. An approver is required to

move the request along by either approving or denying (which sends the request back) the
request. Approvers can also post comments to the workflow.

 Contributors: A contributor is a type of participant that can only add comments to the
workflow. They do not actively approve nor deny the request. Contributors also get notified
of any progress.

 CC Role: This is a passive participant. CC Roles get notified upon the completion of the
request.

Complete the interaction to learn more about setting workflow participants.

Workflow Administration

Dynamic roles and groups

A dynamic role is a flexible way to assign users and groups as workflow approvers based on the job
information of the subject user.

For example, you can create a dynamic role identifying Janet James as the approver for transactions
using promotion as the event reason for employees in Corporate Industries. If Carla Grant promotes
Marcus within the Corporate Industries group and the promotion event reason is used, the system
routes the approval to Janet James.

To create Dynamic Role records, useManage Organization, Pay and Job Structures in Admin Center.

When a dynamic group is used on a workflow, the request is sent to all group members. However,
only one of the members is expected to act on the request.

The groups are created using the same interface as RBP. Dynamic groups are managed using
the Manage Workflow Groups tool.
Note

You can enable the Enforce Four-Eyes Principle On Workflow Step Approval in Platform Feature
Settings that enforces a security mechanism so that the initiator cannot be an approver for the
workflows. This applies to Dynamic Groups and Dynamic Roles.

Workflow Notification

Standard workflow e-mail templates can be found in E-Mail Notification Template Settings. Though
the standard templates can be modified, you cannot customize the notification for each workflow
participant. You'll have to use Document Generation to create a fully customized template where
each participant receives a custom notification.

Workflow e-mail templates use tags, as shown in the figure, Workflow Notification. See the
Workflow Implementation guide for a full list of the supported tags.

Standard workflow e-mail templates are selected by default and cannot be disabled. They are
available for the following workflow actions:

 Approval

 Rejected

 Pending

 Canceled

 Skipped

 Posted
  Lock Down

 Unlock

 Contributor

 CC Role

 Approved

 Sent back

Approver skip

The system provides a sophisticated logic to skip the same single approvers in consecutive steps of
the workflow to ensure improved processing efficiency without compromising data quality and legal
compliance.

All the successive workflow steps with the same single approver, except the last one, will be skipped
automatically. The skipped steps are displayed on the Workflow Details page. All skipped steps are
indicated in the Activity area of the page.

By taking steps out of long approval chains, the skip option improves the efficiency of processing
workflows without affecting data quality. An example is demonstrated in the following table.

Skip logic

Steps: Original
Skipped? Explanation
Approvers

Step 1: User 1 Yes Has the same single approver as Step 2.

Step 2: User 1 Yes Has the same single approver as Step 3.

Step 3: User 1 No Step 4 has a different approver.

Step 4: User 2 Yes Has the same single approver as Step 5.

Step 6 has multiple approvers, even though one of them is the same
Step 5: User 2 No
approver as Step 5 (User 2).

Step 6: User 1, Though it has exactly the same approvers as Step 7, it's not skipped
No
User 2 because we only skip steps with a single approver.

Step 7: User 1,
No Has multiple approvers.
User 2

Step 8: User 2 Yes Has the same single approver as Step 9.

Step 9: User 2 No This is the last step, without the following step.

Enabling the Skip option

The option to skip approvers is enabled in Company System and Logo Settings.
Workflow participation

Employees can track, access and handle workflow requests all in the home page. The Approvals
section in the homepage gives easy access to requests requiring their approval. The View Pending
Workflows in the quick action card in the home page gives users immediate access to requests that
require their attention. These requests are organized into six categories on the Pending Workflows
page. The Access requests awaiting my approval link, allows users to easily navigate to all requests
requiring your action.

 My Requests for Approval: This category includes requests that the user has submitted and
are currently awaiting approval from others. Users can see who is expected to approve each
request.

 My Requests Sent Back: This category includes requests that the user has submitted but
have been sent back for further action. Users can update and resubmit these requests.

 Pending Requests That I Approved: This category includes requests that the user has already
approved and are now awaiting approval from others. Users can see who currently has the
request.

 Requests Reassigned to Others: This category includes delegated and escalated requests.

 Requests for Comment: This category includes requests where the user has been added as a
contributor, with the role of providing comments to facilitate processing.

 Requests for Information: This category includes requests where the user has been added as
a CC role, allowing them to stay informed and follow up on completed workflows.

Approving Requests

You can approve requests in multiple ways:

 Approvals Card

 To-do Panel
  Use the link Access requests awaiting my approval from View Pending Workflows

If you do not want the users to use the quick approval option, disable the permission
in RBP → Manage Workflows

Use the interaction below to learn how requests are approved.

Note

You can have additional filtering options in the My Workflow Request tool when you enable the
permission, Manage Workflows → Professional Edition Manage Workflow Requests, in Role-Based
Permissions.

Ownership of workflows

The Assign to me workflow feature allows a user that belongs to a dynamic group to take ownership
of the request and assign the workflow to themselves. It allows a user to find out who assigned the
workflow as well as remove the assignment from themselves or other members of the dynamic
group.

How to Use the Assign to Me Function?

Before you use the assign to me function, a user must have the Manage Workflow
Assignments permission assigned to them. When the permission is set up, a user can review the
pending requests. As a user in a dynamic group (workflow group), a user can look at any workflow
assigned to that dynamic group and assign it to themselves.

A user can also filter the workflow requests in My Workflow Requests based upon the assignment.

Benefits of Assign to Me
Multiple users can process the same workflow in parallel. For example, if a workflow requires
additional alignment and communication, such as a workflow that has to go through a worker’s
council hearing, and there’s no indication that the workflow is already in progress, another user
could start to process it. This function indicates when a workflow is in progress and increases the
efficiency of the team that processes the workflow.

Exercise: Customize a new hire workflow

Business Example

ACE Corporation wants to customize the existing new hire workflow to include a Dynamic Group of
HR representatives. You will create the new dynamic group, update the workflow record, and finally
validate if the changes are functional.

Note

You must have completed Prepare an Instance (Unit 1) and Prepare the Data Models (Unit 2)
exercises before completing this hands-on. This exercise activity is not required for completing
succeeding hands-on exercises for this course.

Watch the video to learn how to change the workflow.

Steps

1. Go to Manage Workflow Groups to create a Dynamic Group that will be used as a hiring
approver. Use the information in the table to define the group.

Dynamic Group Requirements

Group
HR
Name

People Pool Anyone with Job Code including HR

a. Log in to your instance.

b. Navigate to Manage Workflow Groups.

c. Select Create New Group.

d. Use the information in the table, Customer Requirements, to define the group.

e. Select Update in the Group Membership bubble.

f. Select the new number that is populated in the Group Membership bubble.

g. Verify Alex Anderson is an employee in the Dynamic Group.

h. Select Close → Done.

2. Go to Manage Organization, Pay and Job Structure to update the existing New Hire
Workflow. Use the information in the table to define the new approvers.

Customer Requirements

Approver 1 (Step 1)
 Approver Type Dynamic Group

Approver Role HR

All other attributes remain the same.

Approver 2 (Step 2)

Approver Type Role

Approver Role Manager

Context Target

All other attributes remain the same.

Approver 3 (Step 3)

Approver Type Role

Approver Role Manager Manager

Context Target

All other attributes remain the same.

a. As an administrator, navigate to Manage Organization, Pay and Job Structure .

b. Choose Workflow Configuration → Hire (New or Rehire) (HIRE) → Take

Action → Make Correction .

c. Update the Workflow using the information in the table, Custom Requirements.

d. Select Save.

3. Test the New Hire Workflow. Go to Add New employee to test if the new approvers will
appear in the workflow. Use the table to create a new user.

New Hire Information

Field Values

Hire Date Today's date

Company Ace USA

Event Reason New Hire

Name Gillian Ray

Date of Birth August 22, 1982

 Field Values

Email <use your e-mail>

Manager/
Carla Grant
Supervisor

Job Classification Analyst

HR Manager Nancy Nash

a. As an administrator, navigate to Add New Employee .

b. Hire in the employee using the information provided in the table, New Hire
Information. Include any value for required fields in Job Information.

c. Select Submit.

d. Does your new workflow trigger properly? The workflow should indicate the three-
step approval (HR, Carla Grant, Alexander Thompson).

e. Select Confirm.

f. Proxy as Alex Anderson.

g. On the home page, select Approve Card.

h. Locate the request for Gillian Ray → Approve .

Configuration of delegation

With Is Delegate Supported feature, you can enable approvers to delegate the workflow to another
user in the company. The delegate can then take over the workflow to approve or decline on behalf
of the original approver. The delegate also has the option to refuse the delegation. The original
approver can also recall the workflow.

There are two options on how to delegate workflows:

 Manual delegation: Approvers can identify the delegate at each workflow step.
  Auto delegation: Users can identify delegates for different requests or a single delegate for
all requests in the Homepage → Delegate My Workflows .

Delegation is configured in the Corporate Data Model. The Workflow Configuration foundation
object has a field called is-delegate-supported. When Corporate Data is configured with the is-
delegate-supported hris-field under the wfConfig hris-element, the system allows the admin user to
configure a workflow record with Yes and No options. By default, the field value is No.

Corporate Data Model: hris-field under <hris-element id="wfConfig">

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<hris-field id="is-delegate-supported" visibility="both" required="false">

<label>Is Delegate Supported</label>

</hris-field>

For both manual and auto delegation, it is necessary that delegation is supported at the workflow
record, meaning Is Delegate Supported is set to Yes.

Activation of auto delegation

A user can set up an auto delegate through quick actions on the homepage. To enable auto
delegation, the user needs to have the RBP permission, Allow Auto-Delegation. When auto
delegation is enabled, all workflows with Is Delegate Supported set to yes are routed to the
nominated user. When you assign a delegate, you can specify the start and end times for the auto-
delegation. If they leave those fields blank, the auto-delegation is indefinite until manually turned
off. This includes workflows received through job relationships, dynamic roles, dynamic groups, and
positions. If you enable the Company System and Logo Settings → Allow delegatees to accept or
reject a workflow delegation request option, the delegate has the option to approve or reject the
delegation. A delegate can also view their delegations and delegation periods under the Delegation
Requests for Me tab.

Workflow Auto-Delegation by Groups

Workflow auto-delegation by groups feature will allow approvers to assign different delegates for a
subset of request types. For example, a user may want to delegate their manager for termination,
change in compensation and promotion requests, and delegate a subordinate for all other requests.

Administrators can group related requests in Manage Data → Auto Delegate Group. Workflows can
be grouped by request types or objects.

Administrators can also setup auto-delegation on behalf of employees in Manage Data → Auto
Delegate Config.

The system automatically creates a ALL OTHERS when at least one group is created. This can be used
as a catch-all delegate.

Once the groups are created, a user can choose to identify a single delegate for all requests or use
delegate by workflow group provided they do not exceed three delegates.

Future-dated alternate workflow

You can use an alternate workflow to include more approvers in a workflow process and take care of
potential conflicts caused by future-dated records.

In the figure, Alternate Workflow, an address change would normally go to the Dynamic group,
Talent Approval. However, if a future-dated record is identified, the system will instead trigger the
alternate workflow, Data Change.

For example, Marcus Hoff has a future-dated address record effective December 15, 2099. Today, a
request to change the zip code was submitted.

In the figure, Request Submission, you can see how the approval steps differ using the alternate
workflow, Data Change, because of the future-dated record.
Note

A business rule could be used instead of alternate workflows.

Reminders for approvers about stalled workflows

You can specify that the current workflow approver is reminded to take action on a pending
workflow after a certain number of days. You can configure the notification in two ways:

 Set up the same number of days in all workflows.

 Set up the individual number of days for different workflow records.

To configure reminders, create the job type Workflow Action Reminder in Scheduled Job Manager.
You can set the Remind in Days value to the number of days for all workflows or leave the value
blank and specify the days at the worflow level.
If you are configuring the individual workflow configuration records, you must update the Corporate
Data Model to include the remind-indays hris-field in the wfconfig hris-element as follows:

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<hris-field id="remind-indays" visibility="both">

<label>Remind in Days</label>

</hris-field>

When the scheduled job runs, the system gets all the pending workflows. The number of days is
determined based upon either:

 The number of days entered in the scheduled job.

 The number of days the Admin has entered for each workflow foundation object record if
the number of days is empty in the scheduled job.

If the workflow has been pending for that number of days, the reminder notifications are sent to the
current approver.

The reminder notification reuses the approver's original notification when a workflow is triggered,
with "Reminder:" in the e-mail subject line. There is no need to configure a specific e-mail template
for reminder notifications.

Note

If you configure a number of days in the notification job, values entered on Workflow Configuration
Records are ignored.

Auto escalation of workflows

It is possible to define an escalation path for a workflow. If an approver takes no action on the
workflow, the workflow becomes stalled. With auto escalation, the workflow is automatically
escalated to a specified user if the workflow is stalled for a specified number of days. The new
approver can decline the escalation, returning to the previous approver. The previous approver can
also revoke the escalation, thus bringing it back to themselves. After declining or revoking, the
escalation would continue with the next escalation step after the defined number of days.

An escalation path must be created within the Manage Data tool, then attached to the workflow
configuration record.

Configuration of Workflow Escalation

Steps to configure the escalation:

1. You must first add the escalation to the Foundation Object in the Corporate Data Model.
Include this xml tag in the corporate data model under <hris-element="wfConfig"> :

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<hris-field id="escalation" visibility="both" required="false" pii="false">

<label>Escalation</label>

</hris-field>

2. Create the escalation path in Manage Data.

3. Assign the required workflows to the escalation records.

4. Create and run the Workflow Auto Escalation Job Type in Scheduled Job Manager.
Escalation will not happen if you have enabled the auto-approval feature.

Auto approval of Workflows

Auto Approval

Normally, a workflow is prevented from proceeding to the next step if the current step's approver
does not take action. As a result, all subsequent approvers must wait until the workflow reaches
their assigned step. It is possible to create a recurring job for automatic approval of stalled
workflows, to make the system automatically check and approve workflow steps that have not been
processed within a specified timeframe. To prevent workflows from stalling at a certain approval
step, you can specify whether a workflow step is to be automatically approved when the approvers
haven't responded within a certain number of days.

Configuration of Auto Approval of Workflows

To use the auto-approval, you must include this XML tag in the corporate data model under <hris-
element="wfStepApprover">.

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<hris-field id="autoApproveInDays" visibility="both">

<label> Days until Auto Approval </label>

</hris-field>

The second step is to create a recurring job that automatically checks and approves steps of stalled
workflows. In Provisioning, go to Managing Job Scheduler > Manage Scheduled Jobs and start
creating a new job. As the job type, select Workflow Auto Approval and complete the job fields.

We recommend running this job daily, defining an active period for the recurring job, or entering an
infinite future date.

The third step to enable this feature is to define the "Days Until Auto Approval" in your workflow
configuration record approval step by entering a number in the field. This number specifies how
many days elapse before this recurring job prompts the system to auto-approve a non-responsive
step. As a result of this configuration, when a workflow step has not been responded to within the
predefined timeframe, the system automatically approves it. It allows the workflow to proceed to
the subsequent steps.

Additional Resources

For more comprehensive information on workflows, go to the Workflows Implementation Guide in

the SAP Help Portal.

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